The Process

Detailed maps of Trinidad were bought from the Land Use and Mapping department of the Government. A satellite image of Trinidad was then projected onto this map until it was exactly of a corresponding scale. The coordinates of one pixel were marked onto the map - in this case in the centre of the savannah in Port of Spain. Eight sheets of old galvanized were painted with red oxide.

Permissions, transport and helpers took the materials out to the Savannah. A combination of a map, measuring tape, and string were used to mark out the 30m x 30m pixel on the ground.

The area was methodically covered stage by stage with eight sheets of galvanized. At each stage a single photograph was taken from a fixed perspective. The process continued until the whole 30m X 30m area had been covered.

The Ratch.

At the core of this activity there was a strong sense of futility. The work was arduous, illogical, senseless and ultimately doomed to failure. Perhaps even more worrying than that was that it really did not matter whether it worked or not.

The final intention was to compile all the ‘documentation’ of this process into something that made it look like it had worked. This kind of deceit is what a Trini calls a Ratch. The central panel of the final composite image conciously makes this deceit apparent with a patchwork of images, whilst the side panels of the tryptich are duplicates aside from a single pixel which has changed from green to red.